


That one time Yuzuru learned his coach was totally right. And pancakes taste good.

by ElleLL



Series: That one time [3]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: M/M, Pancakes, Superfluffy, culinary experiments, more useless talks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-19 04:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12402918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElleLL/pseuds/ElleLL
Summary: One morning, cooking. Or trying to. Pancakes are a challenge, one Yuzuru wants to overcome.





	That one time Yuzuru learned his coach was totally right. And pancakes taste good.

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of epilogue to That one time in Montreal. 
> 
> No native English speaker here. Any misspell from fictional Yuzuru is part of my headcanon about how he talks in English. Any mistake in the rest of the work is entirely my own.  
>  Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction, just a scrap from my own mental theatre inspired by real life people and events but with no claim to be real.

 

_Toronto, end of September. Javi’s flat, in the kitchen. Yuzuru learns that following a recipe doesn’t mean you’ll food will look like that in the shiny picture they put to lure you. Javier only wants to eat, he’s hungry._

 

Apparently a dark cloud had settled in Javier’s kitchen and it had the appearance of a very troubled (but still thoroughly charming, in his plain black track pants and loose black t-shirt) Japanese young man. -I don’t understand-. Yuzuru creased his forehead, slitting his eyes at the culprit of his bad mood. -I follow instruction, it should work-.

-Well, obviously it didn’t-. Javier stared at the floppy thing in the pan. It looked more like some kind of crepe, all flat as it was, than a pancake. And it would almost certainly undo when transferred to the plate. Well, at least it was still edible. Hopefully. And even if the look wasn’t appealing, they had plenty of toppings (and even all sorts of not-seasonal fruits Yuzuru especially loved) to turn it into a delicious... something.

Yuzu pursed his lips in frustration. Javi could almost hear the cracking of thunders around the younger man.  
-I don’t understand-. Yuzuru stole a wistful glance at the image on Javi’s phone, a pile of perfect-looking pancakes, all golden and fluffy glory, drowned in a sea of even more golden maple syrup. In the plate next to the phone, Yuzu’s attempts were piling up. -First one was good-.

True, it was the one that actually _resembled_ a pancake.

-The beginner’s luck?- Javier joked tentatively.

 -I don’t understand-, Yuzuru repeated, his voice taking a defeated pitch. He looked as if he would throw a tantrum at any moment. Or dissolve into tears. The Spaniard knew this wasn’t only about the pancakes, not even about cooking. It was the “I don’t understand” that made that culinary attempt an utmost failure in Yuzu’s eyes. He hated failure, but hated even more when he couldn't understand _why_ he'd failed, because it meant he _couldn't get better_.  
And Yuzuru had to _always_ get better.  
Actually, that was the driving force that had kept him fighting in his darkest moments, the reason why he had fallen many times but had never been really broken.

Javi sighed. He took the pan and with a spatula he made the weird half-crepe join its sad-looking companions.

-Let’s eat them, all right? It doesn’t matter if they don’t exactly look like pancakes. They’re still good-.

-I know, but... it _should_ work-.

-Yuzu, I think that’s why you aren’t that good at this. Cooking, I mean. You think everything should follow some instructions, but when cooking you gotta be... more flexible. Follow the instinct, something like that. Timers and scales can’t make food perfect-.

-That’s nonsense. This isn’t magic, it’s _science_. It’s chemical reaction and physics, so in same conditions you should have same result. If don’t happen is because of something I couldn’t figure out. _Yet_ -, the Japanese man growled.

-Um, I guess it might be true, but...-

-Like when jump. How you move body, how you use arms and legs and tighten muscle, how much speed in and such, all of that make you jump and land or fail. So if you fall is only because one those things wrong. So one can find what is and...-

-I know. Though, Yuzu... to be honest I think most skaters don’t really thinks about all of that when jumping. _I_ don’t. It’s more like... instinct-.

-Yeah, but instinct comes from body knowing what mind wants. Mind aligned with body so things flow natural and good... and when not aligned...- Yuzu grimaced, obliviously thinking about his free skate of the previous week at ACI, -than fail and you get _that_ \- he pointed at the pile of _whatever-they-may-be, they-are-definitely-not-pancakes_. Yuzuru stared at them for a while, a scary focus in his gaze. He nodded to himself, muttered something in Japanese, then finally looked back at Javi. To the Spaniard’s relief, there was more wonder than disappointment on his face.

-Wow. Brian really knows what he talks about-.

-Yeah. I bet he’d got his fair share of failed pancakes, too. Come- Javi stepped close and cradled the younger man’s face in his hand. Javier searched Yuzu’s eyes softly. -I’m sure you’ll master the art of pancake making. And everything else- he brushed their noses and planted a kiss on his cheek. -Come.- he patted the other’s nape before letting him go and sitting down. -Let’s eat. I’m starving-.

This time Yuzuru agreed and slipped in one of the chairs.

-Next week, we do again- he decided, -Our pancakes will be all golden and fluffy like in picture, I swear!-

-Yeah, yeah, here- Javi plucked one strawberry and pushed it into Yuzu’s  mouth stopping his rant. -Here something sweet to cheer you up-.

Yuzu’s eyes turned into crescents as he munched the fruit happily, his whole face brimming with laughter.

They ate the failed pancakes.

They were all delicious.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just another silly take on Brian Orser's pancake talk.  
>  By the way, am I the only one whose cakes are always better when I’m not doing them for guests? It’s so damn frustrating  
>  And I’ve got plenty of “damn it doesn’t look like the picture at all” moments.  
>  And also “damn, it says xxx minutes but it doesn’t look good at all”.  
>  The floppy thing that my poor fictional Yuzu gets was actually my first experience with pancakes. In my defence, I thought cutting the number of eggs to half was a good idea. Oh, and using water instead than milk too. So the resulting failure was totally expected xP  
>  I do believe cooking is "science", and if you can learn to pay the due attention to every detail, you can have reasonably good results with some kind of consistency. But alas, most of the time I’m too lazy to care about that, so I learned to just go with the flow (Javi’s style). Hey, it (usually) works! ^^


End file.
